Regal Princess's balancing act

Regal Princess anchored off Princess Private Island, Princess Cays.

Photograph by: Phil Reimer
, For Postmedia News

Next year, Princess Cruises will celebrate its 50th anniversary. While it's a great milestone in the cruise line's history, Princess is hoping 50 is the new 40. The Royal Princess and Regal Princess are new ships that should cater to the traditional 55-plus cruiser while at the same time enticing a younger generation.

You may be one of those people who work hard, take minimum time off and must always be plugged in, so much so that you've never tried cruising. If so, you should note that Princess really listened, made a seminal shift from its traditional longer cruises and added a whole series of one-to five-day cruises from home ports around North America, starting last year.

Fort Lauderdale and Southern California are the two big markets for these shorter cruises. I took a three-day cruise and noticed the Regal Princess demographic is much younger. They stay up later, crave good music, love bars and good food, and wants to see more packages - be they for food or drink.

There are other home ports with limited shorter cruises, such as Vancouver, San Francisco and Houston. From Vancouver, you can take a four-day Alaska taster (just one stop: Ketchikan) that finishes in Seattle. There are even some one-day cruises from Vancouver at the beginning and end of the Alaska season (end of September, beginning of October). Spicing up the on-board experience is dancing that starts at 11 p.m. - outdoors at the Night Sky Lounge around the stern pool. Want more? After midnight, you can hang around the piano player in Crooners lounge or catch a late-night comedy show. Meanwhile, if that's all past your bedtime, there is plenty of "early" entertainment to satisfy the long-standing (not old!) demographic.

I have two favourite spots on the Regal Princess. The Piazza is outstanding. It's three storeys high with lots of restaurants, bars, the casino and shops, all packed around a marble-laden feature. Princess claims it's 50 per cent bigger than piazzas on its older ships.

My other favourite spot is the buffet, unique with its separate Horizon Bistro and Horizon Court which have lots of seating inside and out. The pastry shop is located in a separate room. The food is generally good but the service needs to be kicked up a notch. Also needed are enough electrical outlets in staterooms to accommodate cruisers loaded down with tablets, phones and cameras.

In reality, Princess stepped onto a demographic tightrope with this new ship, trying to keep both the traditional and younger demographics happy. It's early days, but it appears to be working.

When I disembarked - along with the original cast of The Love Boat (now the ship's godparents) and many celebrities who appeared on the TV series, like Canada's Rich Little - the Regal Princess will sail mostly in the Eastern and Western Caribbean from Fort Lauderdale.

Phil's Pick of the Week

This cruise aboard Holland America's Eurodam sails at the height of summer, taking in the best of Northern Europe and the North Atlantic combined for 29 days. Price was correct at time of writing.

Leaves: August 26, 2015, Copenhagen to New York Ports: Include Hamburg; Tallinn, Estonia; St. Petersburg, Russia (overnight); Stockholm (overnight); Warnemunde (Berlin); two days in Iceland; two days in Greenland; St. John's, N.L.; Halifax Starting price: $4,790, based on per person double occupancy Check with a cruise agent or Hollandamerica.com.

-- Visit portsandbows.com, sponsored by Expedia CruiseShipCenters, 1-800-707-7327, www.cruiseshipcenters.com, for daily updates on the latest cruise news, best deals and behind-the-scenes stories from the industry. You can also sign up for an email newsletter on the site for even more cruise information.

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